Cigarette package and method of packaging cigarettes



Sept. 4, 1934. P. M. GROSS HAL 1,972,222

CIGARETTE PACKAGE AND METHOD OF PACKAGING CIGARETTES Original Filed July15, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. P401 M. 6/9056 6:50 6f H. Hon/2W6Sept- 4, 1934- P. M. GROSS El AL CIGARETTE PACKAGE AND METHOD OFPACKAGING CIGARETTES Original Filed July 15, 1951 2 Sheets- Sheet 2 m mw m P401 M. 6/7056 6Z0 6519 fZOWf/75 ATTORNEY 1 Patented Sept. 4, 1934PATENT OFFICE CIGARETTE PACKAGE AND METHOD OF PACKAGING CIGARETTES(Driginal application July 15, 1931, Serial No. 550,978. Divided andthis application March 81, 1932, Serial No. 602,306

6 Claims.

Our present invention relates to cigarette packages, includingindividual containers for personal use and cartons containing the same,and method of packaging cigarettes, and this application is a divisionof our copending application, Serial No. 550,978, filed July 15, 1931relating generally to the manufacture of cigarettes and moreparticularly to a method of increasing the moisture content of tobaccoin manufactured and packaged cigarettes.

It is well known in the art that practically all of the popular brandsof paper-wrapped cigarettes now upon the market are made with tobacco,which is usually in shredded form, and treated in any of the well knownor approved ways to bring its moisture content to approximately 9 or 10%by weight, at which it can be fed more evenly to the cigarette machinerythan when the moisture content is higher, and the tobacco in this formis conveyed into any approved so-called continuous rod cigarette machineand made into cigarettes. Such cigarettes, because of the particular orlow moisture content of the tobacco, will be found to be firm anduniformly filled, but not so pleasing to the taste, when smoked, as theywould be if the moisture content of the tobacco was increased, to, say,approximately 12%.

After the cigarettes have been so manufactured, a selected number as,for instance, 20, are immediately packed into a suitable container, suchas a container of the so-called cup or pouch type, although we do notwish to be limited to of foil or paper, or bothcombined, and an outerwrapper 2 of relatively stiff paper, which is folded into the form of acup or pouch, one end of which is closed, and the other end open, andthrough which open end a portion of the inner wrapper of foil or foiland paper projects, after which such projecting portions of the innerwrapper are folded and closed or sealed as at 3, Fig. 1, so that suchfolded and sealed end may be readily opened or torn away to gain accessto the cigarettes within the package. Sometimes the packages areenclosed in an outer wrapper of glacine-paper or cellophane, and ourimproved package may or may not have; such outer covering, as desired.

At present cigarette packages of the kind referred to are made byautomatic machinery, and in such machines a suitable number ofcigarettes, such as are required for the particular package, arecollected and then packed into the cups or pouches which are also formedby the machine. Sometimes the machines form the empty pouches and thecollected cigarettes are first compressed and then inserted en massewithin the cups or pouches; and sometimes the wrappers or pouches areformed around the collected mass of cigarettes, and the open end of thecup or pouch is then closed by folding and sometimes by sealing thematerial of the inner wrapper at one end of the package as shown in Fig.1.

According to our method we propose to select and assemble with thecollected group of cigarettes to be packaged, a suitable humidityingelement which may take any one of a number of forms that will hereafterappear, and these humidifying elements are of such a size andconstruction that they may be included within a cup or pouch package asnow constructed and Without increasing the size thereof. And furthermorethe construction of the humidifying element is such that there will beno danger of staining or discoloring the delicate cigarette wrapperpaper, which would be very undesirable.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a method or processof packing cigarettes whereby the cigarettes may be made from tobaccoshaving a moisture content best suited to machine manufacture, andwherein the moisture content may be appropriately raised or increasedafter the cigarettes have been made and packed for shipment and sale.

A further object of the invention is to provide a novel cigarettepackage having enclosed therein a novel humidifying element carryingjust sufficient moisture quantitatively to raise to the proper degreefor smoking purposes the moisture content of the tobacco in the packagedcigarettes and no more.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a novel carton ofpackaged cigarettes having enclosed therein a novel humidifying elementcarrying just sufiicient moisture quantitatively, and no more, toproperly condition all the tobacco contained in the cigarettes of thedifierent packages enclosed within the carton.

With these and other objects in view, the invention comprises the novelmethods or processes and method or process steps, and the novelcigarette packages, including cartons, herein described in. detail andthen more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In order to enable others skilled in the art to understand, make and useour invention we will now proceed to describe the same in detail inconnection with the accompanying drawings, wherein,-

Figure 1 is a top plan View of a known form of cigarette packageembodying our invention;

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the package shown in Fig. 1, with aportion of the wrapper broken away to show the moisture carrying insert;

Figure 3 is a longitudinal section of one form of insert;

Figure a is a similar view of a slightly modified form or insert;

Figure 5 is a longitudinal section of another form of insert;

Figure 6 is a top plan view, partly in section, of a cigarette packageembodying another form of the invention;

Figure I is a side elevation, partly in section, of the package shown inFig. 6;

Figure 8- is a top plan view, partly in section, of another embodimentof the invention;

' Figure 9 is a side elevation of the package shown in Fig. 8, with apart of the outer wrapper broken away to expose the moisture carryingelements;

Figure in is an enlarged section of a por= tion of the wall of thepackage illustrated in Fig. 8.

Figure 11 is a perspective view of a carton of cigarette packagesshowing our invention incorporated therein;

Figure 12 is a perspective view showing one form of carton insert madeaccording to our invention.

In Fig. 3 of the accompanying drawings we have illustrated one form ofhumidifying element or insert, which consists of a tubular casing 4,which may be conveniently made of water and moisture-proof material,such as wax paper of the type now usually employed for drinking straws,the tube being preferably flexible or yieldable so that it may readilyconform to the cigarettes when compressed and packed in the cup or pouchpackage and without injuring the same. The tube a is almost completelyfilled with a mass of absorbent material 5, such as blotting paper, orabsorbent cotton or other absorbent material, which almost completelyfills the tube except at the extreme ends. thereof. We prefer to makethe tubes slightly shorter than the cigarettes and to leave the ends ofthe tube unfilled so as to avoid any danger of the moisture contained inthe absorbent material making direct contact with the delicate paperwrappers, such as would stain and discolor them.

The dimensions of the tube 4 and the quantity of absorbent material andmoisture carried thereby are so calculated and measured with referenceto the quantity and moisture content of tobacco contained in the groupof cigarettes within the package that there will be just sufiicienthumidifying air or moisture given off quantitatively to raise themoisture content of the tobacco within the package about 3%. In otherwords, if the cigarettes are made from tobacco having a moisture contentof about 9%, this moisture content, after the cigarettes have beenpackaged with the humidifier, will be raised to about 12%, which willplace them in the best condition for smoking purposes.

In Figures 1 and 2 we have shown the tubular humidifier located'in onecorner of the package, adjacent one row of the cigarettes, where thereis ample space left because in packing cigarettes in cup or pouchpackages there is usually one .wrapper 1a and the outer wrapper 2a.

less cigarette in one of the outer rows than there are in the otherrows. It will be obvious of course that more than one humidifier may beinserted in each package if so desired.

In Figure a we have shown a humidifier like that illustrated in Figure 3except that the ends of the tube to are partially closed by flatteningor collapsing said ends as at 6. By this construction the rate of flowof the humid air from the open ends of the tube may be regulated orretarded.

Instead of making the humidifier from a collapsible tube such. as shownin Figures 3 and 4, we may make them from a rod or cylinder 7 of porousmaterial such as wood .or any other porous composition coated as at 8,except at its ends, with a substance which is impervious to moisture.Humidifiers of this type may be saturated with water and inserted intothe packages of cigarettes and sealed therein during the process ofwrapping as described.

Humidifiers made according to our invention may have any convenientdiameter or length, dependent upon how much moisture is to be introducedinto the cigarettes, although the length of the humidifier should notexceed the length of the cigarettes in order to maintain the form, shapeand size of the present conventional package.

While we have shown and described three forms of cylindricalhumidifiers, we do not wish to be limited to these particularconstructions, as obviously other forms will quickly suggest themselves.

In Figs. 6 and 7 of the drawings we have shown a humidifier consistingof a thin rectangular sheet ofblotting paper 9 arranged between twosheets of water or moisture-proof paper 10. This form of humidifier maybe located in the package of cigarettes between the inner foil Suchhumidifiers may be made relatively fiat and thin so as to occupy a spacebetween the inner and the outer wrappers of the cup or pouch withoutunduly altering the scope of the package.

In Figures 8 and 9 we have shown a slightly difierent form of theinvention. In these figures the humidifier is formed by making the cupor.

pouch of a blank or label composed of a relatively send-impermeableouter layer 12 having its inner face backed or coated with an absorbentmaterial 12, such as thin blotting paper or the like. In these figuresthe numeral 1b indicates the inner wrapper of foil or paper or both.

In every form of humidifier employed it will be understood that thehumid air or moisture coming ofi from the moisture carrying element, iscirculated throughout the cigarettes so that it will be readily absorbedor taken up by the u bacco, but is prevented from escaping from thepackage by reason of the fact that the package is otherwise closed bythe inner and outer wrappers, and care is exercised at all times toprovide just suificient moisture quantitatively to bring the quantity oftobacco within the package to just the proper condition, and no more.

As a further embodiment ofv our invention instead of inserting thehumidifiers directly into the individual packages themselves, we mayinsert the humidifiers in a carton containing a number of packages ofcigarettes, which cartons are afterwards enclosed within a wrapper sheetof waxed or parafiined paper or other water repellent ma terial.

We have illustrated this form of invention in Sill Figures 11 and 12wherein we have shown a carton of ordinary form consisting of twotelescoping box members 14 and 15, which when closed may be wrappedwithin an outer wrapper 16 of waxed or parafllned paper or othermoisture repelling material. In this form of our invention thehumidifier consists of a sheet 17, of waterproof material, such as waxedor paraflined or otherwise treated paper, folded in V-form, as shown inFigure 12, between the folds of which is located a sheet of blottingpaper or other absorbent material 18. One or more humidifiers of thisconstruction may be inserted within the carton between the inner wall orwalls thereof and the ends of the cigarette packages. The humidifiersare preferably of slightly less length than the over-all length of thecarton proper so that the moisture from the saturated absorbent strip 18may escape not only' from the ends of the water-proofcovering," butfrom'the top thereof, and since the carton is otherwise sealed, suchmoisture or humid air will ultimately find its way into the tobacco inthe cigarette packages and raise the moisture content of the tobacco tothe proper degree.

So far as we are aware, we are the first in the art to provide forraising the moisture content of manufactured and packaged cigarettes byinc'orporating a humidifying element within the cigarette package duringthe formation of such package, so that the closed and sealed packagewill carry its own moistener which will raise the moisture content ofthe tobacco in the cigarettes after they have been manufactured fromtobacco which carries a relatively low moisture content best suited tocigarette manufacture.

We have demonstrated by numerous experiments extending over a longperiod of time that we can successfully increase the moisture content ofpackaged cigarettes in the manner herein-described, and the invention ismade entirely practicable by reason of the fact that the humidifierswill be enclosed within the packages by the same machinery employed tomake the packages, so-that the only additional cost of cigarettespackaged according to our invention is the cost of the humidifieritself, and as all of the various forms of humidifiers disclosed hereinare extremely simple and can be manufactured at small cost, the addedcost of the completed package is practically negligible. This is of verygreat importance from an economical standpoint because it is well knownthat the popular brands of cigarettes are now selling at a price thatwill not permit of any appreciable increase in the cost of manufacturethereof.

Another important result made possible by our invention resides in thefact that the manufactured and packaged cigarettes may be readilyflavored with any suitable flavoring extract or easily medicated by anyappropriate medicament. This is accomplished by saturating the absorbentmaterial of the humidifiers with a flavoring extract or by a medicamentso that the humid atmosphere given off by the humidifier with its fiavoror medicament will be quickly absorbed by the tobacco in the cigarettes.This is important because by our process or-method the flavoring extractor the medicament need not be added to the tobacco itself when thecigarettes are manufactured. By adding the flavoring or the medicamentafter the cigarettes have been manufactured and packaged it will beapparent that only such quantity of the total number of cigarettesmanufactured may be treated as desired, and they may be treated at anytime after their manufacture.

While we have herein illustrated and described what we now consider tobe the preferred embodiments of our invention, we do not wish to beunderstood as limiting ourselves to the constructions shown except as wemay be limited by the appended claims, because further modifications ofthe present disclosures will readily suggest themselves to those skilledin the art after they have become acquainted with our objects andpurposes and the different disclosed ways of accomplishing the statedresults.

We claim:

1. As a new article of manufacture, a cigarette package comprising amoisture-repellant wrapper and a group of paper-wrapped cigarettesenclosed therein, and a humidifying element having an imperforate wallenclosed within the package along with the cigarettes, the originalmoisture-content of the tobacco in the packaged cigarettes beingapproximately 9% and the charge of available moisture in the humidifyingelement being proportionate and sufficient to raise the moisturecgrtentof the cigarette tobacco to approximately 1 o.

2. The package of claim 1, in which the moisture-content of thehumidifying element has operated to raise the moisture-content of thetobacco in the packaged cigarettes to approximately 12%.

3. As a new article of manufacture, a cigarette package comprising anouter pouch-like container formed from a moisture-repeilant wrapper offlexible material, a group of paper-wrapped cigarettes enclosed therein,and a humidifying element enclosed within the container along with toapproximately 12%.

5. As a new article of manufacture, a cigarette package comprising anouter pouch-like container formed from a moisture-repellant wrapper offlexible material, a group of paper-wrapped cigarettes enclosed thereinand a cylindrical humidifying element enclosed within the containeralong with the cigarettes, said element located in a'corner of thepackage alongside and lengthwise F of the cigarettes, the originalmoisture-content of the tobacco in the packaged cigarettes beingapproximately 9% and the charge of available moisture in the humidifyingelement being proportionate and sufficient to raise the moisture-con- 7tent of the cigarette tobacco in the package to approximately 12%.

8. The package of claim 5, in which the mois ture-content of thehumidifying element has operated to raise the moisture-content of thetobacco to approximately 12%.

' PAUL M. GROSS.

GEORGE HORACE FLOWERS.

